William Eggleston

William Eggleston is an American photographer born July 27, 1939 in Memphis Tennessee. He acquired his first camera in 1957,a Canon rangefinder, while attending college. His early photographic efforts were inspired by the works of Robert Frank and The Decisive Moment by Henri Cartier-Bresson. While he began his work in photography in black and white, in 1965 Eggleston began to experiment with color transparency film, which would become his dominant medium in the later sixties. While teaching at Harvard (1973-1974), Eggleston discovered dye-transfer printing (http://ctein.com/dyetrans.htm). This process resulted in some of Eggleston's most striking and famous works. In 1976, Eggleston's work was featured in an exhibition at the MoMA; this was regarded as a watershed moment in the history of photography, marking the acceptance of color photography by the highest validating institution of the time. His work was the first solo exhibition of color photography in the history of the MoMA.

Eggleston's work is characterized by its ordinary subject matter, finding a unique beauty and striking display of color in ordinary scenes. His work focuses primarily on life as it was occurring in the Mississippi Delta region, choosing to photograph the places he lived as a means of explaining his part within the environment. His work has been called an interpretation of the American vernacular, highlighting the events unfolding around him and documenting the South during a time of major changes. The ability of Eggleston to capture the mundane in an incredibly striking way, displaying the South as it was and refraining from romanticizing it, was what allowed Eggleston to move forward in the photographic realm and become an American icon. His intense use of color gave his work an elevated depth that many other working at the time lack, as well as instilling the photographs with a sensitivity and intensity that draws the viewer into an almost other worldly place.

I was initially drawn to William Eggleston due to his impact on a generation of Southern photographers working today. His ability to create a narrative utitlizing pieces of the Southern vernacular is something that I am considering doing on a different level this summer. The simplicity of the images give them a hidden depth and many of the photographs have an allegorical feel to them.


http://www.egglestontrust.com